~ One of many failures ~

After the battle.

"Gradu, you've failed your challenge of blood" Starts the Queen, with everybody surrounding them.

"Yes, My Queen" He says with apparent disappointment in his voice, with his head held down and his shoulders slumped over.

"Because of your reckless tactics, twenty-one of our soldiers lost their lives"

Gradu stays silent as the Queen continues.

"No words, huh? No, I suppose not. Then I will keep this brief, originally, for every death after the given goal of ten, your penalty would increase, maybe if only twelve died, you'd have to break two of your own chosen fingers in repentance, at fifteen, perhaps you'd lose an eye. Who truly knows what you would have to do in those circumstances" The Queen pauses, seeing that Gradu hasn't yet lifted his head.

"Lift your head and meet my eyes, soldier" She says to him.

Gradu does as he was told, even if he's too ashamed of himself to want to do it.

The Queen's eyes and Gradus's eyes meet and with this, the Queen can continue and finish her previous statement.

"I do know one thing and that is what's going to happen to you now... You're going to die, Gradu, you've let too many soldiers die an unnecessary death, that is your penalty"

Gradu's eyes widen, but soon thereafter they go back to normal, well as normal as they were, ashamed and disappointed. He takes a deep breath and lets it out, becoming content with what he heard.

"I understand, my Queen"

"Good, I respect that, no apologies, no theatrics, no crying, just acceptance" The Queen compliments the man, before calmly sliding her hand down to her rapier, she starts unsheathing it, all its glory showing as more of it comes out by the moment until finally, she holds it near the soldier's body.

"Choose" The tip of the rapier glides to Gradu's forehead, indicating the first option, then it goes down to his throat and stays there for a second, showing him his second option, and lastly, the rapier slides all the way to his chest, where his heart, which is his last option.

"Throat, my Queen" He answers almost immediately.

"And why would that be?" Inquires the Queen.

"Because even if that order came from my mind, it's my mouth that spoke the order which led them to die and my heart? I want that to stay intact when my body gets sent back to my love, to show that even to my death, she still owns it" Gradu finishes his romantic words with melancholy in his eyes.

"Touching" Is all the Queen says, before thrusting her arm back, so she could drive her rapier through the man's throat as fast and elegantly so that he wouldn't feel much pain or be forced to suffer through such a wound, she closes her eyes and readies herself to strike.

Everybody in the crowd is watching this unfold, nobody has even one thought of stepping in to stop what's about to happen, almost all of them have seen some similar events and more importantly they understand that there's just no going back from the challenge of blood.

All, but one soul, who's watching this with terror in his eyes, who at the moment of the Queen's thrust, screams out as he runs out from the crowd to stop it "NO! STOP!"

The Queen's trained arm stops just short of Gradu's throat as he hears the shout, she steps back as she feels her rapier being swatted to the side, as another shadow looms over her.

Before her eyes can even gaze at whoever it was that interrupted the ending ceremony of the challenge, her answer was received by Gradu's voice instead.

"Ipatu! No, get back, it's okay"

"Ah, so it's the brother" The Queen speaks her thought out loud as she finally looks at the two brothers.

Ipatu is looking back at the Queen with tears in his eyes and something else... Something which has been directed at the Queen a lot from her enemies, rage, anger, and defiance. Ipatu ignoring his older brother's tug at his shoulder and his words, speaks to the Queen.

"I will not let you touch my brother"

"Ipatu, I understand, but it's fine, I deserve this, let it happen" Gradu's words would've gone unheard by Ipatu's ears, if not for the word 'deserve' in those words.

Ipatu turns around and with anger in his voice "DESERVE IT?! DESERVE WHAT? Death? Just because you lead the army to victory? The only thing you deserve is recognition or praise, not death"

"I let twenty-one people die"

"Yeah, well, I am sure that I would've let fifty die, others would do the same, if not more, so it's a big win in my books"

"You don't understand, it's because of the challenge"

"I don't care about some challenge when my brother's life is at stake, besides the only thing that challenge exists for is to entertain and beat the Queen's boredom, it shouldn't even exist in the first place"

"Don't say such things, you'll get yourself into trouble" Gradu tries to diffuse the situation from going overboard.

"Shut it, brother, this doesn't concern you" Ipatu, however, just mercilessly shuts his brother's attempt down.

"B-but, it does"

"It doesn't any longer" Ipatu finishes with his back turning on his brother to face the Queen again, leaving no room for interpretation and his brother sulking behind him.

"How dare he interrupt our Queen! Not once, but twice!" Palion seethes through his teeth as he readies himself to stop this blasphemy, but to a surprise of all generals, he gets stopped by one of the Queen's maids, when she steps in front of him, with a look that just oozes out a warning, if he dares to move more, he won't like what happens to him. Begrudgingly he stops himself from acting.

Ipatu stays quiet as he angrily keeps his determined gaze with the unimpressed Queen.

The Queen finally opens her beautiful mouth to speak.

"You come in to protect your brother, say that you're not going to let me touch him, show the power and extent of your brotherly love... But you don't even bring a weapon to back up any of it" The Queen shakes her head mockingly.

Ipatu's eyes drop down to his empty hands, but quickly go back up, with some hidden embarrassment, he says back "I don't a weapon for this"

"Uh-uh" The Queen boredly lets out "So reckless, why even do this then, jumping in front of somebody, sacrificing yourself just to increase the casualties"

"Is the Queen's really wondering that? When she would do the same for any of her wives, even if she doesn't like any of them? At least I do this out of my heart, out of love for somebody, not for some meaningless family principle"

The Queen's eyes get sharper at that statement for a quick moment, but it disappears as fast as it came, not one individual noticing the quick chance, except for the two maids and one of the generals.

"I see what you're trying to say, but those two points don't correlate together, as I would never be unarmed if such a thing were ever to happen... And even if I was me, my mind and my arms would be enough to protect my wives from anything. And that's the difference, you're 'sacrificing' yourself, for a pointless reason, instead of trying to protect him, to maybe have a chance at keeping you both alive"

Ipatu only stays silent after what the Queen said.

"Silence. You probably understood that I am right... But whatever, forget it, let's talk about something else. So you think that the challenge is worthless?"

"Yes" this time he says so instantly, with full confidence.

"And you like to keep your brother alive?"

"Absolutely, not even a question and there's no debating it, he will stay alive, I swear on this" The answers comes out even faster than the previous one.

"That so?" The Queen muses to herself "Ton, Pon" As those names drop out of the Queen's mouth, both maids immediately get behind the Queen, bending down so that their ears would be in reach with the Queen's mouth.

Everybody sees as the Queen whispers something to her maids and right after that the maids quickly run off after giving a nod, practically vanishing from the sight of the soldiers instantly.

"Well then, if you think the honorary challenge of blood is worthless, then maybe a challenge that will give YOU a chance to show how far your love for your brother can carry you in saving him is less of a 'worthless' challenge"

After those words, the surrounding soldiers and even the generals look at the Queen in surprise, also actual whispering starts between the soldiers, something like this has never happened before, the punishment for the failure of the challenge of blood is the one thing that would never be went back on, it would happen always and no matter what it was.

But the one taking it with the most surprise is Ipatu himself, he has a chance to save his brother, so without even thinking of rejecting such an offer.

"What do I have to do?" He says to the Queen.

"When my maids come back, you wi-" But she stops herself, as one of the maids come back with the weapons "Well, simple. Just as your brother Gradu, had a choice of where I'd pierce him. You will have a choice of three challenges"

"Darti" The Queen calls out to the general, who quickly comes up to her with a 'Yes, my Queen?'.

"Take one the rapier and the bows from Pon"

"Of course, my Queen" Darti gets closer to the maid, who hands him over the weapons, he also takes the arrows and goes back to the Queen.

"Now then, Ipatu, these are your choices. One. A rapier, just like the I own. Two, a bow with three arrows. Three, your own mind. Now choose"

Ipatu considers his options, it's a hard choice, so he does what he thinks is best and asks his brother behind him, who has been silent as the situation escalated, seemingly okay with whatever happens.

"Gradu, which one do I choose?" Ipatu asks.

His brother looks at him, he thinks for a bit, then looks to the side, then back at him, shakes his head, and at the end stays silent.

"Soldier, don't want to give any help to your brother who's requesting aid?" The Queen interrupts before Ipatu could say anything to his brother.

"No, my Queen, it's just that my orders and my 'helping' is what got us into this situation, so I thought that it'd be better for my brother to choose on his own, without any of my influence, besides, I trust him in whatever he picks" Gradu explains.

"Oh, brother" Ipatu lets out with a warm heart. And with a better mood, he goes into thought about what each challenge could entail.

A rapier, a blade, it could mean a lot of things, most of them ending with a certain disaster for him, as even he knows that it's the signature of the Queen.

If he were to choose that, it could be a duel, which he could never win. So there's no way he will pick that.

The bow... This seems the simplest choice, as there are not many things you can do with a bow, if arrows weren't brought, maybe he could figure out that they would try to fix the bowstring or something along those lines.

And then the 'mind' challenge, that is really vague and super broad, it could entail anything and he doesn't know the Queen as much as the others in this army. So if he were to get asked a question, especially about the Queen herself, and frankly that's not that lof of a chance, he would lose.

So the choice was basically done for him by default. On the bright side of things, he's pretty good with the bow, that's the only thing he was better at than his brother.

So with no other choice sounding as good as the bow one, he speaks to the Queen "I choose the bow and the arrows"

"That's a choice, was it a wise one? Well you'll decide after we are done" The Queen says, as she points Darti to move closer to Ipatu, who does just that "Now I will let you choose the arrows that you want and the bow, I will take what's left"

Ipatu nods and looks at what he has to work with, but before he does anything, he gets confused by the number of arrows he sees in the general's hands.

The Queen saw the hesitation and the visible confusion speaks to him "Don't worry about the seven arrows, it's for a bigger number of choice, so go ahead, I will take what's left"

"Ok..." He says still slightly confused and feeling that something's wrong, but not knowing what it could be.

While Ipatu touches the bows, pulling the bowstrings, testing the grips when he releases the bowstrings, seeing how far the draw cycle goes, he weighs both of them with one hand, right after each other to see which one is lighter, which one is the opposite. basically which one feels better as a whole for his arms.

And while he does that, the second maid, Ton, returns with two chained people following behind her, the soldiers look at them, and already pieces fall in their heads, if they know the Queen like they think they do, then this is no mere bow practice.

Finally, the youngun has selected the bow that he thinks is better of the two and when he does, he cranes his head up to see the same sight the soldiers around them have seen, the two prisoners from the battle which just happened.

With that sight, his feeling of 'bad', turned worse.

The Queen saw the soldier being done with his choice, takes the second bow from Darti.

"Arrows?" She says, seeing that none have been picked up yet.

Ipatu nods and just takes three at random, not wanting to drag this any longer, as the longer it goes on, the more stressful he starts to feel, as his previous and reckless adrenaline goes down.

The Queen takes the rest, all four of them, which makes Ipatu confused, but he doesn't question it.

"Ton, prepare the targets" The Queen commands the maid.

With a silent nod, Ton walks with the two prisoners to one of the bigger trees, raises their chained hands for them, and tries to tie them to a strong-looking branch.

At first, the prisoners were in a silent agreement to not speak or make sounds, to not give in and give anything to the Queen, but both of them realized that this is not something either of them want to happen, they feel that the moment those hands get helplessly tied up, effectively locking them up in place, their lives would be over.

"Stop it!" One of them shouts.

"This is insane" The other added.

They struggle as they shout out similar things some more, but both the struggle and the pleading go deaf on the ears of the Queen, her army, and her maids.

And soon, Ton has finished her task, acquiring targets for the Queen, she also tied their heads up, so they wouldn't move them sideways or it wouldn't go down by itself when their bodies go limp.

"Now, this is what's going to happen, we have three arrows each to shoot at our targets" The Queen starts, directing her attention to Ipatu, but she gets interrupted by him.

"Wait? Targets? You mean... Those people?" He asks her, dreading to hear the answer which he already knows.

"Yes, now let's see what part of their body should count for what points" She answers nonchalantly and continues on.

Just to get interrupted again, for the fourth time.

"But that's wrong, they are just prisoners, helpless ones at that" Ipatu argues for them.

"They are just prisoners, right? Wrong, they are the people that killed our fellow soldiers, are our enemies and more importantly, this one is important to you, they are the reason why your brother failed and you are standing right here, right now. So, in short, you better be prepared to shoot at them with the intent to kill, because if not them, it will be your brother, show me the depth of your 'love'. And besides, you're a soldier now, even if you fail here today and your brother dies, you will still be a part of my army, you will be expected to kill somebody someday, otherwise, you'd doom the other soldiers by being like this, so drop this 'I'm so peaceful' act and prepare yourself"

"But what you've just said is the same in their eyes" Ipatu says, referring to the prisoners.

"Well, of course, they hate us for massacring their allies, but this is a war, everybody for themselves, even alliances are not permanent, whoever comes out on top are the ones that matter in the end, as they are the ones that dictate what happens after"

Ipatu stays silent, not knowing what else to say.

"Now, before I continue with what I wanted to say, interrupt me once more and I will bring in more of the prisoners, add more arrows and bring us closer, just so you would have more targets to shoot at, do you understand me?" The Queen asks with a serious gaze at him, she had enough of her being interrupted by this impudent child.

Even if Ipatu wants to argue, he does the smart thing and keeps his mouth shut.

"Glad we understand each other. The points will be like this: Stomach, one. Shoulders, two. Chest/Heart, three. Throat, four. Forehead, five. And lastly, the eyes, ten points, each" The Queen finishes with her point system.

She also sees that Ipatu wants to ask something, but is staying silent, with an eye-roll she allows him to speak, as he was a child looking for permission.

"Go ahead, ask"

"Uh... What about the arms or legs?"

"Everything not explicitly named before is zero points"

"Oh, okay"

"Now, follow me" The Queen says as she starts moving further away from the targets, while occasionally looking back to see the distance. Ipatu, Gradu, Darti, the other generals, and the soldiers follow after her. Of course, the maids do that too.

After moving some distance, she feels that it's good enough, she stops.

"This should be about sixty meters, we will be shooting from here, you can go first, there's no practice runs, no trying out the bow beforehand, we will just get to it as if it was a real battle without much preparation. Three arrows, three chances to get the most points, well, now everything is in your hands, is your brother going to stay alive, or" The Queen doesn't finish the obvious sentence.

Ipatu feeling the pressure, moves away from his brother to step up to stand beside the Queen as he looks at the... human targets, he breathes out and breathes in multiple times to calm himself, his brother in his mind, he readies himself. He sees the mouths of the prisoners move frantically from the distance, same with their bodies, but there's nothing to be done for them.

He raises his hand-picked bow, puts one of the arrows in, pulls the bowstring with the arrow, and aims, he holds it for a while, letting his hands become steady and the moment he feels good about the shot, he takes it.

The arrow flies in the air at great speeds and in seconds, a scream can be heard, Ipatu hits his first shot.

Ton, one of the maids says out loud "One point, a clean stomach hit" Not all soldiers can see that far or are just in a way of others, so they appreciate it.

Ipatu breathes out, slightly disappointed that he managed to get only one point, but with some left optimism, he realizes that it's better than none, so, with that, he prepares his second shot.

This time, he aims a little bit higher than before and lets the arrow go, in a matter of seconds, he hears another scream, this one more excruciating and different than the last one.

At first, he thought that he hit the second prisoner, but he was wrong as he with squinted eyes can see that he hit the same one, the only reason the scream came out from the other one is that he just saw his ally get hit right in "Four points, a clean hit to the throat" Ton says it before Ipatu's mind can finish the thought.

He gulps out of the realization that he has just killed a person, his knees buckle, almost making him fall to the ground, but he keeps on and powers through, with the thought of his brother's life even more predominant in his mind.

With heavy hands and a heavier heart, he puts the last arrow into the bowstring, pulls it out, and aims the same way he did the last shot, just a little bit to the right and up, hoping to hit an eye.

He cringes hard at that thought, but there's nothing to do, but aim for it.

And with that, he releases the arrow, the moment he does, he closes his eyes and waits for the result.

"Ten points, a near miss, but still a hit to the right eye" Ton says for everybody to hear.

Before Ipatu can celebrate, he gets knocked down to the ground by his brother.

"Great job, brother, you did amazing" He says happily.

"Get off me" Ipatu says back.

"Ah, sorry" Gradu gets up, his happy mood also goes away, as he remembers who his brother's match is.

"I have fifteen points, not too bad" The youngun says to himself with the hope that it's enough.

"I hope it's enough" Gradu whispers to him, the same thoughts running through his mind.

The Queen steps up, while Ipatu moves back, Gradu also returns to his previous place, to not impede with the Queen.

"Nice shooting, I see you chose what you thought would be your greatest advantage" The Queen says.

"Thank you" Ipatu says back, even if he thinks that there's something wrong with the Queen's sentence, it's probably the 'thought' part.

"Oh and a way to go, beating down a dead body, not only did he lose his life, but also an eye after it, pretty admirable" The Queen 'compliments' in a mocking way.

To this, Ipatu says nothing, the Queen seeing no reaction to her provocative words, doesn't say anything else, and readies herself.

The Queen puts the first arrow in the bowstring, she quickly pulls it and without much wait, just shoots it out.

She and everybody that can see that there's no need for the maid to even say anything, as the shot didn't hit any of the prisoners, be it the dead one or the still terrified one.

It hit the ground below them.

"Zero points, a miss" Is said anyways, but by Pon this time.

"Oops, not the best one, I don't use bow too often" The Queen comments.

To newbies and some of the veteran soldiers, it looked like an amateur shot the bow, but to the more trained eye, which includes the maids, Gradu, and the generals, they can see that the Queen just used her first shot to test the grounds.

With a very tiny smile, the Queen takes the second arrow and this time, she holds the draw for far longer than the last time. She closes her left eye, squints with her right one, and aims the bow, moving it little by little in different directions, deciding what's the best option.

And soon, she sees it, feels it, and just knows that she has got it down and a smirk etches on her face.

"Sorry, not sorry, brothers" The Queen says and before anybody can react, spins around and shoots the arrow at the unsuspecting older brother, who failed his challenge of blood.

His throat gets pierced way before he can do anything, his eyes travel to his younger brother's eyes and he sees confusion, terror, hurt, and anger all mixed in.

"NO!" Ipatu screams and darts towards his already falling brother, not even registering the blood getting on him from the pierced throat.

Gradu smiles with a bloody mouth at his brother and before he can even raise his hand to brush off the tears that started to fall, stops breathing.

"W-wha, no, no, NO, G-Gradu, brother, w-wake up" Ipatu talks to his dead brother, lightly shaking him to see any sort of reaction "Don't leave me" Is the last thing he says, before his confusion clears away and complete rage replaces it, brushing his own tears harshly away, he snaps his head towards his brother's killer.

Only to meet with calm, cold, blank, and uncaring eyes of the Queen, his rage forcefully stopped from coming out by such a gaze, he sees the Queen looking straight at him, but her arms crossed sideways as she has her bow pulled and set in the way of the targets, she releases the already prepared arrow and before it even hits the prisoners, she takes her last and fourth arrow and shot it out. So that's why she had four, she played him from the start.

"Ten points and ten points again" Pon says, as pained screams can be heard from the live prisoner who has just lost both of his eyes "Two clean hits to both eyes, with this, the Queen wins"

Ipatu can only stay silent, as the Queen stops paying attention to him as if he didn't exist.

"Bariq, take the young child and make him into a soldier, from now on he will replace his brother's position" The Queen says to the general who has led Gradu before.

"Yes, my Queen" Bariq affirms and starts moving towards the bloodied Ipatu.

The Queen starts to walk away.

Ipatu can only look at the Queen, as she moves on, without a blink of an eye, without any words... without anything. He can't have that... He can't let her go, not like this. So with only anger and revenge in his mind, he quickly stands up and rushes for the Queen.

But he doesn't make it far, as both of the maids appear beside him instantly as if they just teleported, one in front, the other behind him and they have daggers drawn at him, one wrong move and he would die.

He only sees one of the maids blankly look at him, as if he was not worth the effort, as if he was nothing, as if he didn't exist, but he can feel the other one looking at him the same.

The soldiers, the generals can't believe their eyes, they have a traitor among them, as he just attacked the Queen, from behind even. Their previously sympathetic eyes turn dark and murderous, not a single soldier is looking at him as an ally, as a human anymore. To them, he is a traitor and nothing else.

The Queen stops herself, turns around, and gazes at him with an open mocking smirk.

She addresses him "Smart move, you just ostracized yourself from everybody. If it were anywhere else, but the Queen's army, for this attempt you would get a harsher punishment... But I feel that this will suffice" She turns around to talk way, while openly chuckling to herself at the youngun's expense.

But she stops herself, turns around again "Oh, and if you thought that one can go against the penalty of the challenge of blood when they fail, well... You see the result, you couldn't be further from wrong. It's a pity too, if you selected the mind challenge yourself, you would've had to select one body part that both you and your now-dead brother would lose together and that would've been it. But what can you do? So just like your brother's choice of engaging the challenge of blood and the bad choice of quick attack in the battle that led to his failure, now you can feel guilty at your own choice of selecting the wrong challenge, indirectly leading to your brother's death, how poetic, no?" She chuckles to herself again "Welcome to the army, soldier" And with that, she turns around and finally walks away.

The maids quickly follow after her, while Ipatu falls to the ground defeated, with not a single soul around him to help him, with disgusted looks, they start walking away from him, some of the soldiers murmuring 'filthy traitor' while walking past him, though the youngun doesn't register any of it, as he looks at this brother's cold corpse.

Now there are only a few people left, Palion being one of them, with a cruel smirk, he moves closer to the 'brothers' and opens his mouth "He got what he deserved"

This Ipatu does register and his rage-filled eyes snap to meet Palion's smiling eyes.

"Oh, so scary, so intimidating, HA!" Palion laughs in his face, he bends down, getting their faces closer "Between me and you, you deserved what just happened way more than your brother did, you trash, that's what you get for going against our great Queen" With that, Palion's face now fully filled with disgust, moves away and he starts walking away too.

Ipatu's eyes filled with sadness lose their spark and his head goes down, he slinks closer to his brother's body and hugs it to his own warm body. He starts sobbing.

Bariq, the general put under his command, stays, waiting patiently for him to get a little bit better, so he could talk to him and get him moving.

But there's one more individual left and that is the old soldier, Varkon.

Who never lost his sympathy for the young soldier, even if he technically just tried to attack the Queen, he moves closer to the brothers, gets on his knees, and puts his comforting hand on his back, starting the young lad, with one teary eye Ipatu looked who touched him only to see Varkon.

Bariq is somewhat surprised that somebody stayed and actually gave comfort to the grieving brother, but he doesn't interrupt it.

"V-V-Var-Varkon" The youngun stutters out the name whilst sobbing "W-why did she have to do it..." Ipatu hopelessly asks Varkon.

"I don't know if you will like this answer, it's the only one I've got, but it's because it's a way for her to send off the soldiers who died because of your brother's faulty orders so that they could finally rest peacefully... In a way, it's an apology, that they lost their lives due to following orders"

"But... She also loses soldiers, then who holds her accountable..." Ipatu says weakly.

Varkon stays silent, not knowing what else to say in this case as he has no idea, so he just silently continues rubbing the back of the youngun.

Bariq listened to the two's short conversation, with the thought of how did this old soldier know that that's what the Queen was doing... That or he just said it to try and help Ipatu because even Bariq himself doesn't know the reason why the Queen does what she does... He will have to ask and inform her of this later.

~ End of Special Chapter, part 3 ~